First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. Invests $230,000 in NorthWestern Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:NWE)

First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. bought a new position in shares of NorthWestern Energy Group, Inc. (NYSE:NWE) during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 4,011 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $230,000.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in NWE. V Square Quantitative Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of NorthWestern Energy Group in the third quarter valued at $26,000. Fidelis Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in NorthWestern Energy Group in the 1st quarter valued at about $28,000. Mitsubishi UFJ Trust & Banking Corp bought a new position in NorthWestern Energy Group in the 1st quarter valued at about $28,000. EntryPoint Capital LLC bought a new position in NorthWestern Energy Group in the 1st quarter valued at about $33,000. Finally, CWM LLC lifted its position in NorthWestern Energy Group by 140.2% during the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 992 shares of the company’s stock worth $50,000 after acquiring an additional 579 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 96.07% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on NWE. Mizuho increased their target price on NorthWestern Energy Group from $52.00 to $56.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on NorthWestern Energy Group from $58.00 to $61.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 16th. StockNews.com downgraded NorthWestern Energy Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 8th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of NorthWestern Energy Group from $56.00 to $60.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of NorthWestern Energy Group from $50.00 to $53.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 6th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, NorthWestern Energy Group has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $56.14.

NorthWestern Energy Group Stock Down 2.0 %

Shares of NYSE NWE opened at $55.32 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.13, a PEG ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 0.46. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $55.13 and its 200 day moving average is $52.39. NorthWestern Energy Group, Inc. has a 52 week low of $46.15 and a 52 week high of $57.48. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 0.36 and a current ratio of 0.52.

NorthWestern Energy Group (NYSE:NWE) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, July 30th. The company reported $0.53 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.48 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $319.90 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $310.40 million. NorthWestern Energy Group had a net margin of 14.21% and a return on equity of 7.65%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.35 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that NorthWestern Energy Group, Inc. will post 3.54 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NorthWestern Energy Group Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, September 13th were issued a $0.65 dividend. This represents a $2.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.70%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 13th. NorthWestern Energy Group’s dividend payout ratio is presently 80.50%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Britt E. Ide sold 688 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, August 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $51.92, for a total value of $35,720.96. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 10,778 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $559,593.76. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.94% of the company’s stock.

NorthWestern Energy Group Company Profile

NorthWestern Energy Group, Inc provides electricity and natural gas to residential, commercial, and various industrial customers. It generates, purchases, transmits, and distributes electricity; and produces, purchases, stores, transmits, and distributes natural gas, as well as owns municipal franchises to provide natural gas service in the communities.